V&V: Rounding Up The Review Round-Up!

Just saw the review for the show in the Chicago Free Press. You can see it posted here.

Very strangely, though, there's a flash ad for "Ghost Town", the new Ricky Gervais rom-com, that floats in the middle of the page and obscures a big chunk of the review. I have no beef with the movie. I generally like anything that Ricky Gervais does, but I'll be damned if I could get that stupid ad to go away long enough for me to read the review of my show. So, I'm reprinting it, in it's entirety here...

“Vaudeville & Vixens”
Created by John Szostek
Showing: Piccolo Theatre, Evanston Arts Depot, 600 Main St. in Evanston, through Oct. 4
Tickets: $15-$25
Contact: (847) 424-0089; piccolotheatre.com

By Lawrence Bommer
CFP theater editor

Performing in a still-functioning Evanston train depot, this plucky troupe loves to exploit “niche” genres like commedia dell’arte, British “panto” and sketch comedy. So this celebration of the contagious wonders of American vaudeville must have seemed a challenge verging on destiny.

The mostly happy result is director John Szotek’s tribute to the wonderful days of the Orpheum circuit (which played, among countless venues, Chicago’s Adelphi music hall, later the Clark Street Theatre), with its next-to-closing favorite acts, comedy duos and burlesque numbers by chorus girls spun off from the Folies Bergeres via Minsky’s. If you’re, like me, a sucker for vaudeville, this is comic catnip.

An anthology of in-your-face vaudeville, the 90-minute romp offers an uneven mix of sassy, showbiz-savvy, song-and-dance skits, hoochie-coochie choreography that seems more labored than lascivious, and go-for-broke comic sketches. Take the rampaging “Doctor! Doctor!” masterpiece that, given the right momentum and wizard combination of slow burns, double takes and inspired mugging, can have an audience in stitches. (Get it?—“Doctor” act...) It also helps if an audience, unlike the fresh-from-a-funeral opening-night crowd, goes with the silly flow and suspends its political correctness (“Did you hear about the queer organist who played only hymns?”), along with the usual disbelief.

A cross between Nathan Lane and Dom DeLuise, emcee Mr.B sets the stage for burlesque blasts like the “Red Rose Rag,” the patriotic “Bugle Call Rag,” a jitterbugging “Ballin’ the Jack,” a lukewarm tango, a klutzy swimsuit shimmy called “Trixie’s Sodden Stripteaste” and a terrific duet performed by preggo chorines imploring “Won’t You Come Home, Bill Bailey?” The hard-hoofing finale, “Happy Feet,” is all that, while David Kelch’s turn as the Amazing Mysterioso makes marvelous magic as Foxie (Leeann Zahrt) is palpably split into three parts before our eyes. It’s even amusing to watch the Outhouse (barbership) Quartet fall apart as assorted temptresses get three crooners to “meet me round the corner in a half an hour.” (Yes, the sexism is preserved for what it’s no longer worth.)

But the hardcore humor here is an extended vaudeville classic like the scatological “Court of Last Resort,” with a superbly comic Ken Raabe channelling Lou Costello as a randy judge and Mr.B as an anything-for-a-laff lawyer who does his own rim shots.

Maybe everything old is not always new again. But enough good-hearted devotion to a grand old entertainment goes into this retroactive retrieval—not to mention hilarious props and costumes—to excuse occasional dead spots and misfires. These folks will bump and grind their way into our hearts or go bust. If the audience auditions for an oil painting, well, that’s what killed vaudeville in the first place. By the time you read this, the Piccoloni zanies should be on a proverbial roll.

Wow. Great review, yes?

I'll take it. I even dig the reference to Nathan Lane and Dom DeLuise. I'll take that too, thankyouverymuch.

And I got some nice mentions in there, too. Which is always a nice touch. I like Bommers appreciation for the sketches. That seems to be his preference and I agree with him. (Some reviews focused on the dances. Some focused on the girls. This one happened to focus on my area of expertise - the funny bits.) So that was nice.

Totally makes up for the Readers morbid pan of the show. Which you can check out here. We knew we were going to be panned by the Reader. They were the last rag to contact us and request seats for their reviewer. When John, the director, mentioned that they were coming to review the show, I told him, "Ugh. They're going to kill us."

I generally feel that the Reader is harder on suburban shows than they are on Chicago shows. I feel like their predjudice preserves the concept that "anything of real value is performed in the city proper" and the rest of the city are nothing but a bunch of community theaters of differing value. I don't have data to back that up. It's just me feeling, take it for what it's worth. (And maybe note that they DID pan us, as I predicted that they would.)

I understand we'll see one or two more reviews popping up and then you and I will be done with this particular round of navel-gazing. Being reviewed is such a strange experience for me. While I've thoroughly wallowed in it, this time around, I suspect I'll be a little more jaded, next time. For the next show, whatever that may be, I'll probably limit the review-reviewing to a single post entry. And not a week's worth.

In any case, if you've made it THIS far, you probably know more about the show than I do and have absolutely no excuse for not coming up to see it. If you DO want to pick up tickets, aim for a Friday night, Saturdays and Sundays are pretty much SOLD OUT for the rest of the run. Which is a good problem to have.

Cheers,
Mr.B
Your Master of Ceremonies,



RATHER THAN ROUND UP REVIEWS ON MY OWN, ALLOW ME TO DIRECT YOU TO THE FINE FOLKS AT THEATERINCHICAGO.COM, WHO ARE KIND ENOUGH TO ROUND UP ALL REVIEWS ABOUT A SHOW, ON THEIR OWN.